Aspartame

Aspartame is an artificial sweetener found in many of the foods we consume every day, including soft drinks, chewing gum, breakfast cereals and jams. Used as a sugar substitute and often marketed as Nutrasweet and Equal, aspartame is an excitotoxin that wreaks havoc on your body. As a person just transitioning into a healthy lifestyle without toxic substances, aspartame should be near first of the list of what to avoid.

One study involving 3,000 women evaluated the effects of artificial sweeteners on the body. The scientists found that  those who drank two or more artificially-sweetened beverages a day doubled their risk of hastened kidney function decline. Another study looked at the relationship between soft drink consumption and pregnancy outcome. The researchers found that pregnant women having one or more servings of artificially sweetened drink daily increased their chance of having a pre-term delivery by 38 percent.

Another study performed by researcher Victoria Innes-Brown shows just how harmful aspartame can really be. The results showed that of 48 rats experimented on, up to 67 percent of all female rats developed tumors roughly the size of golf balls or larger. The male population also suffered, with 21 percent of the males developing similar cancerous growths.

To maker matters worse, aspartame was exposed as a toxic sweetener that was made through a process that involves genetically modified bacteria since as early as 1999. An article by The Independent entitled “World’s top sweetener is made with GM bacteria” revealed that two of the largest health threats –artificial sweeteners and genetically modified organisms — were uniting as one.

When you consume an aspartame-sweetened product, its effect can translate into a number of neurological symptoms like headaches, fatigue, vision problems, and anxiety. These will continue to manifest until the user eliminates it from their diet completely. However, if aspartame usage is continued, a physical addiction to the substance occurs.